Dustin Diaz Photography

339/365. The Red Zone — color yourself

Today we had quite a fun outing doing a paid shoot, and of course, with proper permission, was allowed to post this one for the 365.

My recommendation for others... if you're scouting places for shooting well-lit portraits... never pass up a red wall. ever.

rearding the lighting, unfortunately i don't have the setup shot for it since we move along quite quickly, but you'll be happy to know this was one simple SB-900 @ 1/2 @ 24mm thru a 43" white shoot thru umbrella.

camera info: nikon D3 | 14-24mm(ƒ/2.8G)@16mm | ƒ/5.6 | ISO 100 | 1/250s — Handheld (of course) via pocket wizard II's

and oh yeah. still up for voting? do that while there's still 7 days left.

217/365. Look Mah! I'm a model — Except not really ← (really does look best large)

Your requests have been answered. MANY folks have wanted to see video footage of just my general process without (many) edits. So tonight I put together a nice "strobist info" + "my general workflow and thoughts" + "how to shoot a self-portrait" video. It's roughly 15 minutes and only available through download from my website.

BUT, for the record — and to my unfortunate dismay, iMovie '08 kinda sucks and makes me never want to do this again. And by suck, I mean, it just stopped doing photo overlays. ever. Which was part of the whole educational process and purpose. I had to recreate projects over and over for them to "sometimes" work.

ANYWAY, as I'm writing this, I'm still exporting the second half after waiting what seems like an hour. In the end, I promise it will be worth it

strobist info text: SB-900 @ 1/1 @ 17mm into 60" umbrella.

camera text info: Nikon D3 | 24-70mm(ƒ/2.8G)@44mm | ƒ/8.0 | ISO 200 | 1/60s — Tripoded via timer and pocket wizard ii's

Strobist info video: Download part 1 (~ 230mb), part 2 (~ 70mb)

It's not everyday you get the chance to shoot in an abandoned concert venue. Erin and I did a photoshoot for dishola.com which featured some of the best BBQers from all around Texas. But after the event was finished, but before the big group shot, we took some time of our own to take a couple glam shots in the back room concert area filled with arts and ladders (that sounds like a board game).

strobist info: Nikon SB-900 @ 1/2 w/ 43" reflective using human lightstand to get that thing up there in the rafters.

camera info: Nikon D700 | 24-70mm(ƒ/2.8G)@24mm | ƒ/10 | ISO 400 | 1/80s

67/365.
We're off to see the wizard... the wonderful wizard of Oz

Today was a good lazy relaxing Sunday. We had brunch at Foreign Cinema then watched cartoons and took pictures the rest of the day. Yeah. Pretty good day.

strobist info: Nikon SB-900 thru Westcott 28" softbox @ 1/1 to camera left angled slightly down about 5' from subject

camera info: Nikon D700 | 14-24mm(ƒ/2.8G)@15mm | ƒ/9.0 | ISO 200 | 1/250s

model: Erin

23/365. Nobody likes you when you're twenty three... ~ Blink 182

Ladies and Gents, this is Ed Ho, a friend, photo and strobist enthusiast, and Google Engineer. But first I ask you, can anyone say "straight out the camera" without cracking a smile? Well too bad, because this one was! Ok, ok, so I did add the border and watermark in Photoshop. But that's it! I loved this photo so much, I didn't even touch a single setting.

Anyway, today was Photo Friday (not to be confused with Wine Wednesday, or Thirsty Thursday), and Ed and I brought in our lighting gear then attacked the hallways of Gmail. Cheers everyone!

Camera info: Nikon D700 | ISO 400 | 24-70mm(2.8G)@55mm | f/8 | 1/200s
Strobist info: Nikon SB600 on a hacked AS-19 (Thank you Ed!) @ 1/1(full) power. closed down 45" convertible umbrella, high and left @ 45° — flash to subject about 3' — subject to background about 6'

Erin dressed up for New Years Eve Explorer'd! Thanks everyone.

Again, as my 365 project approaches, here is my 2nd photo before the project officially begins on January first. This was shot in downtown San Francisco near Market and Powell as I waited for Erin and Stephanie to finish shopping in a nearby department store. There wasn't much outside aside from the thousands of people (which I mostly wanted to avoid). Instead there was this lonely red bicycle which begged to be shot. I only took one photo of it, then casually walked away — surprisingly it turned out to be the best of the night.

Oh, and one more thing, Happy Bokeh Wednesday Eve! (yes, it's still Tuesday in California)
Explorer'd!

Erin celebrates her new hat by doing dances.

I had to pull this one out of the weeds. I thought to myself, "this would make a good picture...." so I pulled it from the ground (they were dying anyway) and put it up against the trees (I must have looked like an idiot taking this shot), and snapped away.